No, I can’t take credit for these effective best practices. Yes, they are brilliant and highly effective, but I didn’t create them myself. Instead, people in churches pursuing vitalization brought these to my attention.
Actually, there are more than seven best practices when it comes to derailing vitalization efforts. These are simply seven of the most common and effective. After attempting to rank their impact so I could describe the most significant first, I find these are each so effective in their own way, I couldn’t rank them. So, the list and descriptions below are not prioritized.
Mark Tidsworth
Skilled practitioners know how to combine these, fluidly moving from one to another, as opportunities present themselves.
Relate to your church from a position of fear and anxiety. This will help influence the church to be a withholding, hesitant, overly cautious, anxious bunch — exactly at the time it needs to practice faith, courage, generosity and boldness.
Spew your fear and anxiety randomly, to anyone who will give you the time of day. You will demoralize some, alienate others and frustrate those who are working for renewal. Use any issue you can (social issues, Muslim growth in America, anger toward Millennials, demise of church culture.) to sow fear.
“Spew your fear and anxiety randomly, to anyone who will give you the time of day.”
“Be afraid, be very, very afraid.” Make this your mantra, repeating it as often as possible. This will distract people from God’s power, focusing them on the giants in the land.
Before you know it, your church’s vitalization effort will be paralyzed. This is what large doses of fear do — paralyze progress.
Believe and act as if funding (money) is your top concern. There are many well-funded churches that have closed their doors. There are very few spiritually vitalized congregations who have closed their doors.
To derail your church’s vitalization, become the voice of the broken record — loudly, consistently and insistently remind people you don’t have enough money to do whatever is being proposed. Often you will succeed in dampening enthusiasm, dispiriting others and quaffing any real attention to the Spirit’s movement.
As you know, anxiety around money is powerful, especially for the generations that endured the Great Depression and the current chaotic financial situation.
Rather than speak directly to church leaders when you have a concern, criticize them informally, using the church grapevine. We understand direct communication actually resolves binds and concerns. So, avoid this practice at all costs.
“Sow seeds of suspicion and doubt while ramping up rumors.”
Instead sow seeds of suspicion and doubt while ramping up rumors. The church grapevine grows quickly, so this strategy will take little effort. Small comments, placed strategically in timing and place, will grow into full-blown attacks — especially when the congregation is already on edge due to the vitalization work under way.
You will undermine the ministries of your pastor(s), church staff and lay leaders, while successfully derailing the vitalization effort.
When the leadership and congregation make decisions, continue to lobby and politic for a different point of view or approach. Keep pursuing your agenda, even though decisions have been made using the appropriate processes. Pretend decisions were not made, acting as if the issues at hand were unresolved and still under consideration.
Go bulldog with this! Don’t let go. Continue on. When you are effective with this, you will stir up dissension, undermining trust in leadership and church decisions. Never give up!
Maintain your belief the church is all about you. Your preferences, your convenience, your happiness and contentment. Try to maintain the view that the church’s purpose is to cater to you.
“Try to maintain the view that the church’s purpose is to cater to you.”
When worship leaders and teachers surface the idea that the church is one of God’s instruments meant to transform the world, including your self-centeredness, do not listen. Do not believe that stuff. You are a religious consumer — you pay your dues (maybe), so you are there to get, not to give or be transformed.
Clutch your consumer identity as vigorously as you can.
Periodically and strategically, threaten to leave. Remember, we are a transient culture, with high-mobility living. Combine the consumer mindset with a hyper-individualism and you are ready to leave your church at the drop of a hat. You can find another one down the street.
When you threaten to leave, you will raise anxiety for everyone. Maybe this will remind them to cater to you, rather than work for vitalization of spirit focused on God’s mission in the world.
Caution: Don’t use this strategy too much or after a while they won’t take you seriously. Be smart and strategic.
Cultivate an overall perspective and attitude of negativity. “Yes, but …” is a great phrase. Constantly point out how any proposed idea or initiative for vitalizing your church has a downside, a really big downside.
Exaggerate the risks as much as possible. Don’t hold back. Rampantly spew negativity. You may be able to poison the well. Your toxicity is powerful, so don’t underestimate its corrosive effects.
Mark Tidsworth is founder and team leader for Pinnacle Leadership Associates. He has served as a pastor, new church developer, interim pastor, renewal pastor, therapist, nonprofit director, business owner, leadership coach, congregational consultant, leadership trainer and author. Ordained in the Baptist tradition, Mark is an ecumenical Christian minister based in Chapin, S.C.